Meeting documents

Venue: The Paralympic Room, Aylesbury Vale District Council, The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, HP19 8FF

Contact: Craig Saunders; Email: csaunders@aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk; 

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 104 KB

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 25 November, 2019.

Minutes:

RESOLVED –

 

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 25 November, 2019, be approved as a correct record.

2.

External Audit Annual Audit Letter pdf icon PDF 14 KB

To consider the attached report.

 

Contact Officer:  Andrew Small (01296) 585507

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The external auditors were required to issue an Annual Audit Letter (AAL) to AVDC following completion of their audit procedures for the year ending 31 March 2019.

 

The Committee received, for information, the external auditors’ AAL which provided an overall summary of the external auditors’ assessment of the Council. The letter drew on the findings of audit work carried out on the Council’s financial statements for 2018/19.  These covered the key findings on the Financial Statements audit, the Value for Money conclusion, Whole of Government Accounts, Annual Governance Statement, and control themes and observations had already been reported to the Audit Committee, so were very briefly summarised in the AAL.

 

The external auditors had been anticipating issuing the Annual Certification Report of grant claims and returns for 2018/19 in January 2020.  In addition to the Annual Audit Letter, the Council’s external auditors had historically prepared an annual summary of grant certification works.  With the raising of Audit certification thresholds, this had meant that only Housing Benefit certification work had been reported for the last few years.  For 2018/19 the requirement for external audit to report on this work had been removed.  Given some of the historic issues around this grant claim, the external auditors had provided a letter (Appendix 2 with the agenda report) confirming that the Council had received a clean bill of health for 2018/19.

 

Members attention was also drawn to the Executive Summary which listed the results and conclusions on the significant areas of the audit process.  This detailed that an unqualified opinion had been given that the financial statements gave a true and fair view of the financial position of the Council as at 31 March 2019 and of its expenditure and income for that financial year.  There were no other matters from the areas of work that needed to be reported to those charged with governance of the Council.

 

The key issues identified as part of the external audit work had been as follows:-

·                    Misstatements due to fraud or error – the work had not identified any material weaknesses in controls or evidence of material management override, or instances of inappropriate judgements being applied.  The auditors had not identified any other transactions during the audit which appeared unusual or outside the Council’s normal course of business.

·                    Risk of fraud in revenue and expenditure recognition – the work had not identified any material misstatements in controls or evidence of material management override, or instances of inappropriate judgements being applied.  The auditors had not identified any other transactions which appeared unusual or outside the Council’s normal course of business.

 

When establishing the overall audit strategy, it had been determined that planning materiality was £2.14m, which was 2% of Gross Revenue Expenditure, with any unadjusted audit differences in excess of £0.107m reported to the Committee.  Further information on the strategy for reporting was included in the Committee report.

 

The auditor’s report also included summary information on the Value for Money conclusion and on data analytics done to help  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Internal Audit Progress Report pdf icon PDF 232 KB

To consider the attached report.

 

Contact Officer:  Kate Mulhearn (01296) 585724

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a progress report on activity undertaken against the 2019/20 Assurance Plan that had been approved by the Committee in July 2019.  The following matters were highlighted:-

 

Final Reports issued since the previous Committee Meeting

 

Four reports had been completed since the last Committee meeting with the full review reports being attached as Appendix 3 to the Committee report:-

 

Council Tax and Business Rates – the review had been classified as Low risk and had identified one medium risk and one low risk findings:

·                    There were instances of refunds being processed via cheque despite original payments being made by batch BACS and bank details being taken via the phone.  These actions were not in line with the Council’s new policy (Low).

·                    The Council had contracted a third-party company to undertake a review of the Council’s active cases with a single person discount granted, however had not documented the action that was taken to gain assurance over the accuracy of the review (Low).

 

The audit report had noted a number of good practice areas which were an improvement on a similar audit undertaken in 2017-18.

 

Members noted that additional resources had been committed to the recovery team and led to a drop in court dates from 20% to between 3-5%, which was indicative of recovery rates improving.  The Committee expressed their thanks to the recovery team for the improved performance.

 

Taxi Licensing – the review had been classified as Medium risk and had identified two medium risk and one low risk findings:

·                    When processing applications within Salesforce, there was a lack of monitoring of vehicles that should be suspended.  Circumstances where this should have happened included an overdue second enhanced vehicle check and incorrect log books.  There was also scope for system improvement for operator licence applications  (Medium).

·                    Application statuses within Salesforce were not being updated to ‘complete’ when a licence had been issued.  Therefore, there was a lack of completeness when this data fed into management reports.  There had also been inconsistency in raising report requests, and the manner in which finalised reports were saved (Medium).

·                    Salesforce did not easily allow the monitoring of cases within the new complaints ‘triage’ process (Low).

 

The audit report had noted a number of good practice areas which were an improvement on a similar audit undertaken in 2017-18.  Members commented that the recent taxi licensing safeguarding training had been excellent, and expressed their thanks to the licensing team for the improved performance.

 

HR Management – the review had been classified as Low risk and had identified one medium risk and two low risk findings:

·                    There was not a central list of all roles that required DBS checks against which compliance could be monitored.  Sample testing of 15 staff members had identified one case where the role required an enhanced DBS check but it had not been done (Medium).

·                    There was no tool to centrally monitor IR35 status and record key information such as date of IR35 check, result and date for review.  A  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Corporate Risk Register pdf icon PDF 226 KB

To consider the attached report.

 

Contact Officer:  Kate Mulhearn (01296) 585724

Minutes:

The Audit Committee had a role to monitor the effectiveness of risk management and internal control across the Council.  As part of discharging this role the Committee was asked to review the Corporate Risk Register (CRR).  The CRR provided evidence of a risk aware and risk managed organisation and reflected the risks that were on the current radar for Strategic Board.  Some of the risks were not dissimilar to those faced across other local authorities. 

 

The CRR had last been reviewed by Cabinet on 17 December 2019 and by the Audit Committee on 25 November 2019.  The following table showing the changing risk profile over time was submitted:-

 

 

Total

Low

Moderate

High

Extreme

Not yet assessed

January 2020

20

2

12

4

2

-

November 2019

21

3

11

5

2

-

September 2019

22

3

10

7

2

-

July 2019

23

4

8

8

3

-

May 2019

23

4

8

9

2

-

March 2019

23

3

8

7

4

1

January 2019

23

3

8

7

4

1

October 2018

26

2

13

7

1

3

 

The background and comments against each risk was included in the report, as well as a summary in relation to residual risk ratings.  The following risks had changed since November 2019:-

 

·                    Risk No. 5: Inability to engage in and influence next round of growth including consideration of CaMKOx Corridor, HS2, Housing Needs targets – had been closed as the emerging Bucks Growth Board was taking this forward with clear direction from Members.

 

·                    Risk No 9: Pembroke Road Redevelopment programme not delivered to time or budget – the risk had reduced from High to Moderate as an EA permit had been approved and the build was progressing as planned.

 

·                    Risk No. 10: Fail to manage and deliver major capital projects on budget and to time (The Exchange), with income and Town Centre regeneration objectives not achieved – the risk had increased from Low to Moderate as new letting agents had been appointed to try to ensure tenants in the fourth F&B unit and commercial units on Long Lional.

 

·                    Risk No. 13: Fail to deliver a sound Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan before the transition to new Unitary Council – the risk had increased from Moderate to High as external influences might impact the ability to deliver by 31 March 2020.

 

Members sought additional information and were informed:-

 

(i)            Risk No. 14 (Building Cladding) – AVDC was working with the management company to address an issue in relation to Friars House, Aylesbury.

 

(ii)           that Members’ concerns regarding the Aylesbury Town Centre (regeneration, reduced footfall) had been captured at Risk No. 11.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the current position of the Corporate Risk Register be noted.

5.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 13 KB

To consider the Committee’s future work programme, copy attached.

 

Contact Officer:  Kate Mulhearn (01296) 585724

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered the future Work Programme (Appendix 1) which took account of comments and requests made at previous Committee meetings and particular views expressed at the meeting, and the requirements of the internal and external audit processes.

 

Members were informed:

·                     that the External Audit Plan and fee letter would be reported to the next meeting.

·                     that Internal Audit Annual Report would be reported to the next meeting and would form the basis for the Annual Governance Statement.

·                     that there would not be a Working Balances report.

·                     that the external auditors were starting to put together the programme / approach / timing for the audit of the 2019/20 financial statements.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the future Work Programme as discussed at the meeting be approved.